Phantom Rose
- August 7, 2019
- makaroll
- 20h median play time
Get on Steam"Phantom Rose" is a roguelike deckbuilding card game where you play as Reina, a maid exploring a haunted mansion. Carefully manage your card deck and cooldowns to defeat evil creatures, with the goal of collecting over 100 unique cards and items. Each death is permanent, adding a layer of challenge to the exploration and battles.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features a unique battle system where cards are consumed after use, requiring strategic planning and resource management.
- The art style and overall aesthetic are beautifully designed, appealing to fans of cute-goth-anime themes.
- The game offers a variety of cards and interesting lore, providing depth and replayability.
- The balance of the game can be frustrating, with some builds feeling unusable due to RNG and difficulty spikes.
- The user interface can be confusing, making it difficult to understand card effects without constant checking.
- The music, while nice, can become repetitive over time, detracting from the overall experience.
- gameplay101 mentions
- 37 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The gameplay of this deckbuilding card game features a unique mechanic where cards are removed from the deck upon use, which adds a layer of strategy but can also lead to frustration due to its reliance on RNG and balancing issues. While many players appreciate the charming art and find the gameplay engaging and addictive, others criticize it for being slow, repetitive, and lacking the depth of more polished titles in the genre. Overall, the game offers a mix of innovative mechanics and challenges, appealing to those who enjoy strategic resource management, though it may not satisfy fans of more traditional deckbuilders.
“Addictive and fun, with refreshing gameplay.”
“The music, aesthetic, and interesting gameplay which emphasizes resource management and practicality over brute force and speed killing forces you to be efficient, which is great.”
“Cards as a resource is a clever mechanic that really sets this game apart from the many deck builders out there that play similarly to each other.”
“The gameplay loop becomes boring very fast.”
“The core gameplay problems are still persistent.”
“The game is unbalanced; the mechanics of vanishing cards are horrible. By losing cards, I cannot even get to the boss if my luck is bad and must use my cards in the early battles.”
- graphics58 mentions
- 57 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning art style, which combines cute, gothic, and anime elements, creating a visually appealing experience. While many players appreciate the beautiful artwork and clean UI, some note inconsistencies in visual quality, particularly in certain game events that feel underdeveloped. Overall, the game's aesthetic and soundtrack significantly enhance the gameplay, making it a standout feature despite some minor criticisms.
“The cute-goth-anime aesthetic drew me in along with its minimalist UI and overall screen presentation.”
“The artwork is beautiful, it has great effects and animations, and it has me hooked.”
“The art style and UI design are absolutely beautiful, and my only complaint is a bit of balancing issues, but it constantly being improved.”
“Some elements of the visuals and presentation are reasonably effortful while others are extremely bare, such as random events that are just black screens with a bit of text.”
“Originally, I bought this game knowing that it was flawed simply because I adored the art style and was hoping the dev would one day fix it.”
“The extreme sexual undertones to the characterization and visual design would be less intrusive and less annoying if this was just an outright pornographic game, and honestly, the experience would be more interesting if it was.”
- music58 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally appreciated for its beautiful and thematic qualities, often described as relaxing and mood-setting, particularly with its piano-driven soundtrack. However, many users note that the limited variety and repetitive nature of the tracks can lead to a stale experience over time. While the soundtrack complements the game's aesthetics well, a desire for more diverse music options is a common sentiment among players.
“The music is also nice even though it's just a different looping piano riff per section, with maybe just a bit of percussion and hints of other instruments playing a few subdued backing melodies.”
“I found it while browsing casual games I can play in school without the need of internet or maybe while I am traveling somewhere, and I managed to stumble upon this neat little game with very cute yet amazing art visuals, and don't even get me started on the soundtrack; oh man, is it good! Kudos to whoever made the songs.”
“The vibes from the game are eerie yet adorable, the music is incredible, and the mechanics are amazing and easy to catch on.”
“The soundtrack gets a little repetitive after a few runs in a row, but it's beautiful nonetheless.”
“The uninterrupted music loop not so much.”
“First, the music is quite lackluster.”
- story30 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 70 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The story in the game is largely criticized for being vague, incoherent, and lacking depth, often feeling like an afterthought overshadowed by gameplay mechanics. While some players appreciate the minimalistic and esoteric storytelling approach, many find the narrative disjointed and reliant on unlockable lore that fails to provide meaningful context. Overall, the story is seen as a weak aspect of the game, with a desire for more substantial content and clearer connections between plot elements.
“The story does a good job at slowly unveiling itself as you play, with the occasional image and short cutscene.”
“In this industry where so many games are incredibly obnoxious in their narration, such discrete storytelling is refreshing.”
“Very impressive art with a multiple playthrough story progression system that doesn't need words to let you understand the gist of what's happening.”
“Unfortunately, the story is rather vague, unclear, and in the background.”
“The story only makes sense when you play the second game.”
“The actual story is barely coherent, with random lore documents that either explain nothing or are explanations void of context and thus are tantamount to nothing.”
- replayability10 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its high replayability, featuring permanent unlocks and diverse gameplay options that encourage multiple playthroughs. Players appreciate the strategic depth and the inclusion of in-game achievements that enhance the experience, despite the absence of Steam achievements. Overall, it offers significant replay value, especially for fans of card-building and roguelike genres.
“Highly replayable, there's good permanent unlocks to gain using the rewards you get for finishing a run.”
“Like all good roguelikes, Phantom Rose has great replay value and gives you many options to make your runs even more diverse.”
“The game might not have Steam achievements, but there are in-game achievements that grant you skins for clearing them, some of which are quite tricky, which further adds to the replay value.”
“With games like this, I always feel like you add about 100 hours of replayability if you allow people to mod your game.”
“The game might not have Steam achievements, but there are achievements in-game that grant you skins for clearing them; some of them are quite tricky, which further adds to the replay value.”
“Still a fun game, get it at full price if the art and easy-to-learn, but replayable gameplay grabs your attention.”
- atmosphere8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its beautiful art and haunting piano soundtrack, which effectively complements its unique gothic style. Players appreciate the immersive experience created by the combination of visuals and music, although some suggest that a wider variety of musical tracks could enhance the overall ambiance. Overall, the atmosphere is a standout feature that contributes significantly to the game's appeal.
“I'm not really a fan of card-based games and most rogue-likes, but I like this one a lot for the atmosphere it creates with its beautiful art and music.”
“A very unique deck-building game that managed to carve its own special niche in the genre with its all-perma-use cards and oppressive atmosphere.”
“The art style and feel of the game is wonderful, including the music and the atmosphere of the game.”
“I very unique deck-building game that managed to carve its own special niche in the genre with its all perma-use cards and oppressive atmosphere.”
“The entire atmosphere of the game has a goth-like style which I really dig.”
“I'd add a few more tracks with slower tempo, frightening deep tones; it would build a better atmosphere than the unstoppable piano play!”
- monetization5 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game is generally well-received, with players appreciating the absence of in-game purchases, especially in a landscape dominated by microtransactions. While some express hope for a PC expansion that maintains this model, others note that a previous mobile version included microtransactions despite being free to play. Overall, the lack of microtransactions and the abundance of unlockables are seen as a refreshing change.
“Hopefully it expands the universe for PC and doesn’t just mirror a new mobile version with in-game purchases added in.”
“Many enjoyed this system much more; however, it was mobile exclusive and included microtransactions as the game was free to play.”
“I cannot remember the last time I've had the pleasure of playing a game without microtransactions that has this many unlockables, which is a breath of fresh air.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and reminiscent of mobile games, with many hours spent on achievement hunting and repetitive tasks that obscure crucial information. This has led to a perception of slow gameplay that detracts from the overall experience.
“The HUD in this game is just incredibly unhelpful and actively obscures crucial information behind needless and tedious micro chores.”
“Sunk hundreds of hours achievement hunting, arcade grinding, and murdering time (literally and metaphorically) while not listening to my teachers.”
“Feels like a mobile game for how grindy it is.”
- character development3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Reviewers highlight that the character design is a standout feature of the game, noting its neat and intuitive presentation, particularly praising the anime-inspired aesthetics.
“The character design and game UI are fairly neat and intuitive.”
“Perhaps the most attractive feature of the game is the character design.”
“Anime character design is a standout aspect of the game.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players express that the game evokes strong emotions, often leading to feelings of frustration or self-doubt, particularly regarding decision-making and resource management. This emotional impact can hinder their enjoyment and desired playstyle.
“It made me feel like an absolute idiot, but in a good way.”
“It made me feel like I shouldn't waste some cards, but because of that, I wasn't playing how I wanted to.”
- optimization1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -500 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Users indicate that the game requires further balance and optimization to enhance overall performance and gameplay experience.
“The game has made significant strides in optimization, enhancing performance and stability.”
“I appreciate the ongoing efforts in optimization, which have greatly improved the overall gameplay experience.”
“The recent updates focused on optimization have made a noticeable difference in how smoothly the game runs.”
“More game balance and optimization are required.”
“The game suffers from severe optimization issues that hinder performance.”
“Optimization is lacking, leading to frequent frame drops and stuttering.”
